1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to floor signage. In one aspect the invention relates to floor signage exhibiting durable, legible graphics while in another aspect, the invention relates to floor signage exhibiting an anti-slip property.
2. Description of the Related Art
Durable floor marking signs that will withstand heavy traffic under industrial conditions are desired for use in factories. Examples of heavy traffic include the wheels of a forklift, hand cart and/or pallet jack going straight, turning or pivoting on the sign; cleaning scrubbers removing dirt from the sign; skids dragged across the sign; metal shavings or debris embedded into wheels or other objects tracked across the sign; and frequent foot traffic upon the signs. The tape should be easy to install in straight lines, repositionable yet build sufficiently high adhesion. Typically, the signs are only for indoor use, available in multiple colors, and capable being printed with various graphics such as traffic warnings, fire extinguisher locations, and the like.
Current products on the market are made by printing the appropriate graphic onto a tape or other substrate, and then protecting the graphic either with a durable over-laminate or with a coating. For industrial use and to make it especially obvious, the signs tend to be large and thus take a significant amount of floor space relative to the size of the average shoe. As such, the signs need to be made with a top layer that will provide traction to protect against injuries that can result from a slip or trip and fall.
While most clean, dry surfaces have a fair degree of slip resistance as measured by various methods, e.g., a variable incidence tribometer, many surfaces will become slippery when wet. The usual method to keep slip resistance high on wet surfaces is to provide roughness on the surface. This allows traction to develop with the high spots while the liquid will accumulate and drain away through the low spots. This is accomplished by imparting a texture of some degree in the surface. Texture is usually applied by embossing, abrading or including particles in a film or coating. Traction on an embossed film may be enhanced by increasing the compliance (softness) of the film, resulting in some compression on the high spots as well.
The drawback of rough surfaces is that non-smooth surfaces tend to accumulate dirt which is very common on factory floors. This dirt is tracked or otherwise brought into contact with the surface of the floor signs, and it accumulates on the sign from embedding into a soft coating or film and/or lodging into crevices and low spots on the film. This results in a floor graphic that is soon obliterated by the dirt, and thus defeated from its function of providing information.